Sandeep Ray

Head of Humanities, Nottingham Malaysia | SEAsia, film/photo, history, writing | 📖's Flutter in the Colony (PenguinSEA 2022); Celluloid Colony (2021)

[CSEAS Kyoto University 京都大学東南アジア地域研究研究所 @kucseas]

Tonan Talk by Sandeep RAY @_sandeepray: Scenes from a Slow Departure: Archival Visuals of Japanese Surrendered Personnel in Southeast Asia. Mon, 8 Sep 2025, 10:30 am. R213, Inamori. In-person only. No registration required. Learn more: https://t.co/48kMvsxPbH

[CSEAS Kyoto University 京都大学東南アジア地域研究研究�� @kucseas]

New #interview with Visiting Researcher, Sandeep Ray @_sandeepray, expert on late colonial SEA, #media and #history. “Old Media Matters: New Approaches to Asian Studies” He talks about his research inspiration, work as a novelist, and more!
https://t.co/mqZK8VYCpV
#VisitorsVoice

[☀️👀 @zei_squirrel]

a Zionist fanatic at the Oxford Union angrily asks George Galloway if he is racist because of his opposition to the genocidal Israeli death-cult, and is applauded by the audience. Here's Galloway's response that gets the audience to applaud him by the end:

[Atul Gawande @Atul_Gawande]

I oversaw global health programs at @USAID.

They reached 100s of millions of people, added 6 extra years to the lifespan of children in partner countries, and were eradicating health threats worldwide.

What insanity and cruelty to break that.

[Roger Waters ✊ @rogerwaters]

One Good Thing on the 20th of January 2025
On the last awful day of Biden 
And the first awful day of Trump.
LEONARD PELTIER IS FREE.
Love R.✊🏼

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Are you sure you want Greenland?! 🥶

[Anwar Ibrahim @anwaribrahim]

The weight of grief bears down on me at the news of the passing of my honoured and cherished friend: Dr Manmohan Singh.

Obituaries, essays and books a plenty there will surely be about this great man, celebrating him as the architect of India’s economic reforms. As Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh was the midwife of India’s emergence as one of the world’s economic giants.

I had the rare privilege of witnessing the early years of these transformative policies first-hand while we both served as finance ministers during the 1990s. We shared a fervent commitment to the war against corruption — even collaborating on unravelling a major case.

The praise that will follow in the days ahead will be truly well-deserved. Dr Manmohan Singh, slightly awkward as a politician but undeniably upright, steadfast and resolute as a statesman, leaves behind a legacy that will inspire generations to come.

To me, he will be all that and much more. Not many people know this, and it is time that I share it with Malaysians: during the years of my incarceration, he extended a kindness that he didn’t have to — one that was neither politically expedient nor, as one can imagine, appreciated by the Malaysian government at that time. Yet, true to his character, he did it anyway. He offered scholarships for my children, particularly my son, Ihsan. Although I had declined the gracious offer, such a gesture undoubtedly showed his extraordinary humanity and generosity, demonstrative, as the Bard would have it, of a man so full of “the milk of human kindness”.

In those dark days, as I navigated the labyrinth of imprisonment, he stood by me as a true friend. Such acts of quiet magnanimity defined him, and they will remain etched in my heart forever.

Goodbye, my mitra, my bhai, Manmohan.

Photo: Getty images

[Sandeep Ray @_sandeepray]

@KeithWoodsYT I think the poster realizes that very few Black people had PhDs even a century ago. And work options were severely limited for historical reasons. The kind of insecurity that leads someone to ask something like this is what we need to be wary of.

[Rakesh Sengupta @Rakesh_Sengupta]

Finally made it to MN Roy’s house in the Roma neighbourhood of Mexico City, where the Bengali revolutionary founded the Communist Party of Mexico in 1917 while evading British surveillance. Now a nightclub, this place feels so far from its radical history of internationalism.

[Vijay Prashad @vijayprashad]

Short note on Syria (based on conversations with people in Damascus).
1. Syrian state had been devastated by the war from 2011 to 2014, and then by the sanctions placed on the country. The Syrian army had never fully recovered in the aftermath of the major fighting to take back the main cities of Hama, Homs, and Aleppo.
2. Israeli bombardment of Syrian military facilities had weakened the Syrian armed forces logistical and ordinance capabilities. These attacks had been sustained and painful for the Syrian armed forces.
3. Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the death of Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah had weakened the ability of Hezbollah to operate even within Lebanon's south, which forced the 'ceasefire' agreement with Israel. This demonstrated that Hezbollah was not in any position to enter Syria again to defend the Syrian government against any armed incursion down the Hama to Damascus road (highway M5).
4. The attacks on Iranian supply depots and military facilities in Syria as well as the attacks by Israel on Iran had prevented any build up of Iranian forces to defend the Syrian government. The weakening of Hezbollah has weakened Iran's role in the region.
5. The conflict in Ukraine had certainly denied Syria the ability to call upon further Russian assistance for the protection of Damascus or for the Russian naval base in Latakia.
6. Therefore, Syria's government no longer had its Iranian and Russian military allies for assistance against the reinforced rebels.
7. The Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formed in 2017 out of the al-Qaeda formations, drew together various military forces from Turkey to the Uyghurs - with a large number of other al-Qaeda influenced fighters - and built up its forces in Idlib over the past decade. HTS has received aid and support from Turkey, but also covertly from Israel (this information came to me from a highly placed intelligence official in Turkey).
8. What will the new HTS-led government do regarding the many social minorities in Syria? What will the new HTS-led government do regarding the Golan Heights and Israel? How will the new HTS-government regard the Israeli military incursion in Quneitra?
9. This story is not over yet. There will be much further unrest in the country led by ISIS as well as the Kurdish groups in the north; already Turkish-backed groups are in combat against YPG and PKK forces in Manbij; US forces are already in eastern Syria, where they say that they will remain as a buffer against ISIS (and will therefore retain control of the oil); there will be tension between the governments of Turkey and the US regarding what the new HTS-led government must and. must not do.
10. I hope very much that the statements made by Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, that retribution must not be the new culture, will come true. The real fear is regarding the treatment of the minority populations. There is no word yet if the militia groups in Iraq will enter Syria. Much of this depends on what happens to places such as the Sayyida Zaynab shrine in Damascus.

[Kareem Shaheen @kshaheen]

😂

[Anita Zsurzsan 🇵🇸 🕎 @iamjourjean]

Countries Netanyahu would be safe in: USA, Hungary, Germany, Argentina. Notice a theme?

[Bina Shah @BinaShah]

44 medical students from Gaza arrived in Pakistan to continue their 4th year studies at Rawalpindi Medical College. They will be given housing and Arabic translators and will be able to do house jobs in PK after their studies. Make this go viral please! @johncusack @ReallyMarcia

[Alex Shams @alexshams_]

Mexican journalists hold a Day of the Dead march to honor Palestinian and Lebanese journalists killed by Israel

Nearly 150 media workers have been slain in Israel’s wars since last year

Solidarity from Mexico City to the Middle East

Photos by @ElizabethSauno

[The New Republic @newrepublic]

Europe’s Green Party is telling third-party candidate Jill Stein to step aside for the sake of America and the world.

https://t.co/3VV2vxpZYM

[Ali A Olomi @aaolomi]

Halloween is a time of witches and therefore the time of the Queen of all Witches, Bidukh.

In occult literature and commentary from the Islamic world, Bidukh is a powerful jinn queen who learns secret names and words from two angels and becomes the Queen of Witches

[Bridget Welsh @dririshsea]

Najib 'not responsible-apology' drama continues as PM Anwar 'terima' (accepts or welcomes @amerhadiazmi notes) the 'apology'. Case to decide whether Najib will be required to enter defence in the multibillion 1MDB scandal trial scheduled Oct 30 Wednesday. https://t.co/gq0kAemjrr

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

Watch the moment the UK’s King Charles was heckled by Aboriginal independent senator Lidia Thorpe as he finished a speech in Australia, where he is head of state.